We turned the boiler / furnace (my explanation of the difference between boiler and furnace is here) at the end of April.
It had been nice, the forecast was good and it was the END of April.
We were too early.
Since then we’ve had a warm, sunny day followed by 2 cold, rainy days followed 2 sunny days followed by 4 cloudy, cold days, and so on.
Thinking it couldn’t go on forever, we decided to tough it out – using the wood stove when it got too cold in the house.
Too cold being 15C (60F) – in the house, not outside.
We’ve been burning a lot of wood.
On the nice days mon mari cooks on the barbecue.
On the cold days I cook anything that involves turning the oven on.
Tuna, Roasted Pepper and Goat Cheese Lasagne
Total time: 50 minutes
Ingredients:
- 10oz (300gr) tuna, drained, net weight
- 3oz (90gr) chevre, goat cheese (the creamy kind in the little square carton, in Europe it’s Chevraux, in the U.S. Chavrie)
- 5oz (150gr) Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup (2oz, 60gr) milk
- 4 green garlic, thinly sliced, including green tops
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 3oz (90gr) aged goat cheese, sliced
- 1/3 cup Greek olives, pitted and chopped, about 15 olives
- 5oz (150gr), pimiento or roasted red pepper, drained and sliced, net weight
- 2 cups (16oz, 480ml) tomato sauce
- 10 no-cook lasagne noodles
- 1/2 cup shredded cheese I used Gruyère
Instructions:
- Sauté green garlic in oil until tender
- Add yogurt, milk and soft goat cheese, stirring until melted.
- Stir in tuna, breaking it up.
- To assemble:
- In a 10″ (25cm) square baking dish, or so… make the following layers
- 1/3 tomato sauce
- 2 – 3 noodles breaking to fit as needed
- 1/2 tuna, goat cheese sauce
- 2 – 3 noodles
- 1/3 tomato sauce
- all of the pimiento
- all of the sliced, aged goat cheese
- all of the olives
- 2 – 3 noodles
- 1/2 tuna, goat cheese sauce
- 2 – 3 noodles
- 1/3 tomato sauce
- all of the shredded cheese
- Cover and bake 400F (200C) for 25 minutes.
- Uncover and bake 5 minutes longer to brown cheese.
- Remove and let rest for 5 minutes.
- Cut into squares (or oblongs) and serve.
So, I made the lasagne on Sunday – a very cold, rainy day.
On Saturday, a sunny, warm day, I took photos of this tree. I’m told it’s an acacia.
We have several of them and they’re very common in this area.
In the spring, just as they are leafing out, they are covered with white flowers. It’s hard to tell on the first photo – but there are more pale yellow flowers than leave,
The scent is absolutely incredible. I’ve decided they have the best scent of any flower in the world.
They perfume the entire front garden.
There are so many flowers the branches are bent low – all the better to walk by and sniff.
Today, of course, the wind came up and the ground is covered in fragrant, cream-colored flowers.
And, just so you know, I hoed my vegetable garden….. Wearing my winter jacket.
In the 1960s, right-thinking Germans would effectively live in the kitchen in the winter. Or, skinflint Germans. I remember some moving a sofa into the kitchen — in the day day when kitchens were large enough, I guess. My mother refused such nonsense. Kitchens were for cooking and eating, and sofas were for living rooms. But the beds were always warm with those suffocating down comforters. So a kid ran from the kitchen to the loo to the bed. And from the bed to the loo to the kitchen. We didn’t plop on the sofa much in the winter.
It is exactly 15 C here at this moment -at about 5 pm, 10 days before the start of our winter. There is no wind and so it’s a ‘warm’ 15 degrees – I even have the back door wide open. I enjoy the freshness but you must be fed up waiting for the sunshine.
do you that in South-west we make delicious fritter or confectionner’s custard with acacia flowers ? it’s a speciality from our area
it’s the best way to like the scent
I like acacia flowers , it remind me my childhood and now it’s my daughters and my grand-son who likes these flowers
RSS feed no longer? Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?
You just have to love the weather. In all the time we’ve lived in Dallas, this is the first spring I remember that really was cool, lasted any real time. Then about a week ago, we woke up and it’s been 90 ever since.
Now you know how we live. We get all the seasons whenever they want to come and usually in the same week. We eat what we can to make us happy. It was almost 90 a few weeks ago and now I’m under blankets in my chair. Is your garden confused? Tree is fabulous.
Ooooh, this lasagne (these lasagne??) sounds fabulous!
The weather thing is quite familiar. Except the “Too cold being 15C (60F) – in the house, not outside” part. Please rest assured that I agree with you that 15C is too cold for inside. But the resident cook (good thing he’s so good) thinks that it has to be as cold as 12C before it’s time to turn on the furnace.
I wear sweaters a lot. Every so often, I wear my winter coat, hat and mittens (just to make a point) when I come into the kitchen to act as sous-chef.
Now, however, it is finally warm. I hope it is where you are now too. But if it’s not, at least you can take comfort by admiring that stunningly beautiful acacia tree.
Dan, there are a lot of people who still live that way here, now. Our neighbor only has the wood burner in the living room… Most people either heat with wood or supplement with wood. Of course, it’s a lot colder in Germany….
Kate, and we’ve had icy, strong winds making our 15C very cold. Yes, I long for sunshine.
Sylvette, I’ll have to get the recipes from you… We still have one tree that is just starting.
Linda, we try – it should be working now.
Tanna, 90? I’d be happy with 70… Which we had a month ago, for 1 day.
Phoenicia, my garden is terribly confused… the radishes aren’t even growing and they’re supposed to like cold weather! But you’re supposed to have perfect weather all the time.
Elizabeth, we wear sweaters a lot, too. And long underwear in winter, and jackets. Does he get the point? Mine was just tell me to put another log on….
He laughs and asks how I think I can use a knife while wearing mittens. Then he says if I really need to turn the heat up I should but that, really, he thinks it will make it raspy hot in the house. As I say, it’s a good thing he knows how to cook.
And yes, I can use a knife while wearing mittens….
Elizabeth, I can hear that conversation… Well, not the mittens, part. I wear gloves.